Thieves steal $6M in jewels under cover of New Year’s festivities

A trio of Midtown burglars waited for the stroke of midnight to pull off a $6 million New Year’s Eve heist, law-enforcement sources said Monday.

“They laid in wait until the ball dropped,” said a law-enforcement source.

The three hooded and masked men broke into a West 36th Street jewelry wholesaler at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in what appears to be an inside job — while 7,000 cops were distracted protecting Times Square revelers just a few blocks away.

The source said the thieves “100 percent” planned the heist to coincide with the ball drop.

They made off with around $6 million in gems and are still at large, police sources said.

The burglars were caught on video inside Gregg Ruth, a commercial jewelry store known for its rare yellow and pink diamonds. One of the robbers, a bearded white male in a hood without a mask, looks straight into the camera during the heist, surveillance footage shows.